The origins of the odd, mysterious holes on the ocean floor has left many researchers confused since their discovery over 18 years ago. Now, they are sending underwater vessels to answer the question.
On July 23, sea explorers used a submersible to dive along the ocean floor North of the Azores, East of Portugal. In an unexplored area, they found a dozen holes 1.6 miles under sea level. Then, five days later, there were four more sightings of the strange holes 300 miles away, this time a mile under. The holes were each around four centimeters wide, and looked strangely manmade, as they were all in a straight line and looked like a plus sign (+).
Scientists theorize that these strange shapes come from underwater sea animals, and they call them “lebenssupren,” or “life traces” in German, respectively. On Twitter, @NOAA Ocean Explorer, the organization that controlled the submersible, stated that they “saw several sublinear sets of holes in the seafloor. The origin of the holes has scientists stumped.”
Emily Crum, an NOAA spokeswoman, said that similar markings were found just 27 miles away from the first set of holes 2 decades ago. In addition, NOAA biologist Michael Vecchione stated that “There is something important going on there and we don’t know what it is, this highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there.” In response to the Twitter post, many people responded with their theories, like underwater springs led to the formation or a manmade pipe was built, housing marine animals.
Experts working with NOAA announced that they would be starting a project to study the mysterious holes in three different submarine dives, called Voyage to the Rift 2022, which started from May and will end in September. They will dive from Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, and Portugal, and will be looking at coral and sponge communities, as they suspect that a living thing created the holes.
One particular response to the Twitter post stated that it might have been from “a deep-sea creature that buries itself under the sand.” Dr. Vecchione said that the idea wasn’t too far-fetched, as he, along with a co-author, wrote an article about the holes in 2004. Their two theories on the case suggested that a marine animal poked something down, resulting in the holes, or it burrowed underground, and used the holes so it could go to the surface.
“It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that someday we will figure out,” Dr. Vecchione added, “But we haven’t figured it out yet.” He said he was “a little disappointed” that researchers had not found an answer yet. The third dive, which will be livestreamed, will take place on August 7th.
On July 23, sea explorers used a submersible to dive along the ocean floor North of the Azores, East of Portugal. In an unexplored area, they found a dozen holes 1.6 miles under sea level. Then, five days later, there were four more sightings of the strange holes 300 miles away, this time a mile under. The holes were each around four centimeters wide, and looked strangely manmade, as they were all in a straight line and looked like a plus sign (+).
Scientists theorize that these strange shapes come from underwater sea animals, and they call them “lebenssupren,” or “life traces” in German, respectively. On Twitter, @NOAA Ocean Explorer, the organization that controlled the submersible, stated that they “saw several sublinear sets of holes in the seafloor. The origin of the holes has scientists stumped.”
Emily Crum, an NOAA spokeswoman, said that similar markings were found just 27 miles away from the first set of holes 2 decades ago. In addition, NOAA biologist Michael Vecchione stated that “There is something important going on there and we don’t know what it is, this highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there.” In response to the Twitter post, many people responded with their theories, like underwater springs led to the formation or a manmade pipe was built, housing marine animals.
Experts working with NOAA announced that they would be starting a project to study the mysterious holes in three different submarine dives, called Voyage to the Rift 2022, which started from May and will end in September. They will dive from Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, and Portugal, and will be looking at coral and sponge communities, as they suspect that a living thing created the holes.
One particular response to the Twitter post stated that it might have been from “a deep-sea creature that buries itself under the sand.” Dr. Vecchione said that the idea wasn’t too far-fetched, as he, along with a co-author, wrote an article about the holes in 2004. Their two theories on the case suggested that a marine animal poked something down, resulting in the holes, or it burrowed underground, and used the holes so it could go to the surface.
“It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that someday we will figure out,” Dr. Vecchione added, “But we haven’t figured it out yet.” He said he was “a little disappointed” that researchers had not found an answer yet. The third dive, which will be livestreamed, will take place on August 7th.
